Supportive discipline is here to stay : Texas high schools make headway against the school-to-prison pipeline

Abstract

The discipline models employed in U.S. schools tend to swing back and forth like a slow pendulum. Following the tragic shootings at Columbine in 1999, districts around the U.S. began to employ policies now known as zero tolerance. By the middle of the 2000s decade, Texas school districts and state legislators — progressive and conservative alike — realized that zero tolerance no longer worked. Together, lawmakers, regional education service centers and school districts began to roll back zero tolerance. Gradually, educators implemented aa variety of supportive discipline methods across the state. By the time of the 2014 Federal letter from the civil rights offices in the Education and Justice Departments, Texas schools had already made great headway in reducing exclusionary discipline while simultaneously improving student behavior. Texas can be a model for other states. This is a 6800 word piece of longform journalism, written to be suitable for publication in a magazine such as Texas Monthly or The New Yorker